We are entrepreneurs, not politicians.... We'll cut costs.... We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden's tenure.
In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), the justices held that agencies can't impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies' interpretations of the law or their own rulemaking authority....
The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court's recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a future president couldn't simply flip the switch and revive them but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.
A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy....
Industrial logic.
The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified.... Employees whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect....
Skeptics question how much federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone. They point to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures authorized by Congress. Mr. Trump has previously suggested this statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court would likely side with him on this question. But even without relying on that view, DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood....
We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action. Our top goal for DOGE is to eliminate the need for its existence by July 4, 2026 -- the expiration date we have set for our project....
That's the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Posts
80 comments:
Sounds reasonable to me.
People who don’t work weekends or after 5 pm during the week are no match for Elon.
I knew he would reference Chevron. Start with the Bureau of Alcohol Trans-Fats & Entenmanns, Elon. Make them squeal.
This is exciting - we all know there is government bloat - who could quibble with this goal? I feel so hopeful!
Someone democratical and grifty and random will accuse Elon and Vivek of sex crimes and DD Driver will pronounce them both guilty immediately.
Their focus on "cutting costs" is great and all, but they simply cannot accept the fact that the Federal Government is under the control of the Mafia and that an extremely large portion of the annual $7 trillion federal budget is
BEING. STOLEN.
$200 billion just in small business scam loans to start with. There's no way you can cut costs enough to recover the money that is simply being STOLEN and given to DNC cut-outs throughout our country ... mostly NGO's that they control that are laundering federal tax dollars back to it through ActBlue.
The Democrat Party MUST be declared a RICO Mafia organization and their leadership has to be imprisoned. Only then can ANY effort to cut costs show any fruit.
The naivete on display by Ramaswami and Musk is ... well it's just fucking STUNNING.
The DOD/Pentagon is ground zero for this. If anyone other than the Pentagon failed as many audits as they have they'd have been sued, fined, and prosecuted into non-existence by now.
Why executive action when you control all three branches? Why not do it the right way and run things through Congress?
Question, does anyone think our newish, extra based commenter is anything but a Fed?
I'm laughing at Colo Governor Polis - who is the opposite of this.
Polis(D) (or Governor "McFeeMe") does nothing but dream and institute punitive fees and never ending increased punitive taxes.
Our roads are a joke, our schools are a mess, crime is higher than ever, Illegals are ruining our once great city... and on and on. Yet because the media licks his balls - he remains popular with his dedicated leftists.
Leave that one for last. Glad to see the Pentagon budget balanced, but let's see them work on something that doesn't have nuclear missiles to use against us first.
Congress has been compromised by those receiving the federal budget. They're literally being blackmailed, by the FBI, CIA and the DOJ. And so those people cannot be trusted.
Besides ... didn't you listen to Biden??? We are no longer a Democracy. We are a Dictatorship. We no longer need Congress. We had an election about this and the Democracy side lost.
But the statute allows for “reductions in force” that don’t target specific employees. The statute further empowers the president to “prescribe rules governing the competitive service.” That power is broad.
Previous presidents have used it to amend the civil service rules by executive order, and the Supreme Court has held—in Franklin v. Massachusetts (1992) and Collins v. Yellen (2021) that they weren’t constrained by the Administrative Procedures Act when they did so.
With this authority, Mr. Trump can implement any number of “rules
Mass Layoffs!
Require workers to show up to their offices.. Move their offices to Nome Alaska
Make them QUIT!
Yes. Dude is like Ray Epps' brother.
over 90% of Washington DC doesn't even show up to work.. AT ALL.
There are OVER 7,000 Agriculture Dept "workers" in DC.. about 540 show up to work
Also ... not new. Been here since Ann started, but am smart enough not to leave digital footprints for the real Feds.
so, Dixcus says: The problem is REALLY BAD.. So, we shouldn't do ANYTHING about it
Guessing Ramasway will take the lead since he dies not seem to have a job and Musk has multiple jobs at private and public companies that pay him a lot.
Good.
While I wish them luck, I predict the lasting impact of Elon and Vivek's DOGE effort will be underwhelming because they do not understand the roles and responsibilities of most of the people in the federal workforce.
30% of the federal workforce is veterans.
Will be interesting to see how much cutting Congress is going to be ok with.
The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies.
This was a good point. Hopefully it assuages some folks. If Congress doesn't like the cuts all it has to do is pass legislation making specific expenditures. This shows it isn't about gathering power in the Executive but returning it to the Legislative. It also highlights the source of the problem in that Congress gave up it's power which removed the normal political and legislative checks and balances which limit spending.
"The naivete on display by Ramaswami and Musk is ...." It requires an unparalleled level of effrontery to refer to these men as naive. Most people may be unaware of the despicableness of the deep state. But Trump has gone out of his way to appoint people who are not, particularly Musk, who laid off 6,000 people at Twitter.
Setting a deadline for when you cease to exist is a good start.
Matt Gets withdrawals. He was never going to get it.
That's comedy gold! Wait. You're serious?
Where does that statistic come from?
Can we just cancel December as well as the rest of November and the first 19 days of january?
It sounds like Christmas is already here!
They can't get started soon enough for me.
John Henry
The major drivers of the debt are Social Security and Medicare. Trump has vowed not to touch them. Attacking the debt without reforming them is like treating a brain tumor with cold medicine.
This is like Raegan's Grace Commission. The problem with the Grace Commission was they published a book after the waist study. The difference with DOGE is they will do it publicly in real time.
Just pure coincidence that Colorado will lose space command to those knuckle dragging 'Bama rednecks on 1/21/25.
John Henry
And if the new rules include any budgetary savings this can be done through reconciliation, just like Nancy and Chuck shoved their crap through last time. Chuck is literally shaking with fear that we will do even half of what he had planned and bragged about.
We should do a LOT about it. Starting with arrests and imprisonments. If Elon Musk can find a cheaper supplier for staples later on, then glad to have him on board ... but let's get REAL. You gotta eliminate the criminals then worry about the crumbs.
This phase is where Republicans establish credibility and trust to address those programs later.
If Elon Musk lays off 6 federal employees, I'll eat my hat.
One measure of their success will be how much the residential real estate market drops in and around DC.
And he's now out of Congress. Dude got played.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said
That's comedy gold! Wait. You're serious?
I'll meet you here in 4 years and you can tell me how wrong I am. Personally, I think with their short attention spans, these 2 will get frustrated and resign in a little over 2 years.
Social Security drives ZERO debt. It's paid for by employers and the people paying who paid into it. Also, not all income is even taxed for Social Security - so we can start there if funds are needed.
Since 1900 there have been about 1,000 car companies founded in the US. Only 4 survive. None of the hundred or more electric car companies are among them. Except Tesla.
Several companies plus USG have tried to develop space. NASA and Boeing really have no excuse for failure. Only SpaceX has been able to really succeed.
I'm still not sure about the Boring Company and underground tunnels for transportation. But it seems to have found a profitable niche in smaller tunnels for utilities, piping and so on.
I sure am glad that Musk was too naive to realize that he could not possibly succeed in these 3 diverse industries.
"Why executive action when you control all three branches? Why not do it the right way and run things through Congress?"
It's called the filibuster. Besides, a lot of this is probably properly the purview of the Executive Branch. That's what Vivek argues.
LOL. Republicans have funded NPR for the last 4 years, bro. Don't go holding your breath.
The British once took on Washington DC. One of their measures of success was a house fire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
CBO reports
Henry Ford was pretty naive too. First in believing that he could put America on wheels in an economical car that anyone could drive and service. Then in believing that he could develop an economical and rugged tractor that any farmer could afford (Fordson), in developing a process for float glass that all the glass makers said was impossible (He took and engineer who knew nothing about glass and put him in charge of developing a process, still used today) Or developing a solid block V-8 engine that everyone said was impossible.
Thank God for naivete.
John Henry
Anybody who doubts Musk's ability to cut, take a look at this.
That is a thing of beauty. NASA couldn't do that in a million years. Which is exactly the problem.
"The best part is no part." DOGE should adopt that as their mission statement.
Even if successful Musk can't last more than 6 months with all he has on his plate.
"Social Security drives ZERO debt. It's paid for by employers and the people paying who paid into it."
They don't collect enough payroll tax to cover the benefits. I don't believe you don't know that.
And I don't think anyone has any idea yet of the impact of the naive Elon Musk deciding to cast the entire frame of the Tesla as a single piece in the GigaPress. Everyone said it was impossible. Musk said he wanted to do it, would pay what it cost and found a company to work with him.
Now, a single casting, that takes a few minutes to make in plant, replaces a couple hundred pieces from diverse suppliers.
Pretty naive, thinking he could do that.
John Henry
Anyone who doubts Musk's ability to cut should look at this. That is a thing of beauty. NASA couldn't do that in a million years, which is indicative of the problem.
"The best part is no part" should be DOGE's mission statement.
Almost every federal job announcement includes a vet preference. So 30% is no surprise. DoD is probably much higher.
Anyone who doubts Musk's ability to cut should look at this. That is a thing of beauty. NASA couldn't do that in a million years, which is indicative of the problem.
"The best part is no part" should be DOGE's mission statement.
Interesting how federal employment has become yet another entitlement program.
They need to set a standard for publicly available communications in connection with regulations and procurement. All the emails, texts and meetings need to be open.
Anyone who doubts Musk's ability to cut should look at this. That is a thing of beauty. NASA couldn't do that in a million years, which is indicative of the problem.
"The best part is no part" should be DOGE's mission statement.
Social Security drives ZERO debt.
Just like if a household spends $800 a month on groceries those grocery expenditures cause zero debt if $500 of that comes from the take home salary and the other $300 comes from putting it on the credit card.
Vivek is absolutely correct on the law. This is a great approach too. Just act and let SCOTUS sort it out later. I'm super encouraged.
There are enough traitors still in the Republican Party that will protect Washington DC from the will of their voters to the extent that executive action is necessary.
My metric for success in this endeavor is AlGore's efforts to reduce paperwork in government, which resulted in an additional half to full page for the Notice of Paperwork Reduction Act Compliance being added to almost every federal publication and form. So if Elon can only redirect the federal budget away from the leftist life support so much of it is, and towards actual useful spending, he will have succeeded.
The creation and pre-planned/scheduled dissolution of DOGE is the single most innovative thing I've seen in government in decades. If Elon and Vivek accomplish their mission - "Ozempic for Government" - it will be good to see government wearing yoga pants again.
"AlGore's efforts to reduce paperwork in government," I remember that effort starting with Reagan. Story I heard is Ronnie hand-wrote orders filling a half page of paper directing all executive branches to find and eliminate excess verbiage on forms. This grew as order went down the chain, each agency developing unique, independent, rules for how to go about fulfilling instructions... Turned into an encyclopedia's worth of anti-paperwork paperwork.
During ww2 Churchill was famous for his "prayers"
They followed the form "Pray reply, on one half sheet of paper, why you have not done (insert some task here) yet.
John Henry
Milton Friedman: From 14 departments to 4 and a half.
Love it!
If the USSC acts that suggests an injunction below. I'm super encouraged.
I seem to remember reading that Calvin Coolidge tapped Gen. Leonard Wood to perform a similar function in an effort to reduce government spending after World War 1.
Tech folks love that "north star" descriptor.
Something I ran across on Twitter: the claim that the FBI has no statutory authorization, was created by executive order in 1908 (they had a picture of the one-page E.O.), and can therefore be abolished by executive order. That seems constitutionally sound. Would it also be possible to abolish nine-tenths of it and reorganize the rest by executive order? That might take a lawyer to determine.
Definitely a fedposter.
So?
Effin spam filter.
Marc, do you know how to do math? If 30% of the workforce is veterans that means 70% are not veterans. Let’s start with getting rid of some of the 70% that aren’t veterans. And I will guess a huge chunk of those people do not show up to work in person anymore. And if they lose their jobs, they really have no one to blame but themselves for not showing up.
There's all sorts of ignorance coming from Musk, Ramaswamy, and the comments in this thread. I've seen the federal workforce up close and personal. While I wholeheartedly agree that agency reform is an urgent priority, government doesn't work how many people think it works.
EMPLOYEE TYPES AND ESTIMATED PERCENTAGES
50%: Useless DEI hires and veterans. Veteran's Preference became a thing when the government wanted to offer social support to disabled soldiers. It grew to 30% of the workforce (600,000+ people), and veterans are often unqualified or uninterested in their work. They can't or won't do it, so the government hires duplicative private contractors. DEI started with giving work to slaves/escapees from southern plantations circa the Civil War, as D.C. was the closest non-slavery government to the old south. It became common and moved into management following LBJ's Great Society of the 1960s and Carter's installation of unqualified Hispanics as agency leaders. The placement of Kamala, KJP, Sam Brinton, and Lloyd Austin for skin color and sex is nothing new. Maybe 20% of the workforce was hired and promoted for symbolism or as reparations -- and they are often fervently supported by ideological lefties. Capable support staff and contractors in the shadows lets the symbolism continue.
10% Deep State actors and political snakes. There are lots of liars, cheat, and con-men in this world, and the good ones become the heads of government or industry. These are the human equivalent of cockroaches (outlast nuclear war) and houseflies (dodge a swat attempt). They have supreme social skills and will happily kiss you as they stab you in the back. Good luck getting rid of them, for if they all died the next generation would gravitate into the same roles. See the story of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover...then James Comey decades later...
20% Functionaries, middle-managers, and gate-keepers. They are usually competent, and hired to follow check lists and rules. To the letter. They sometimes get off on enforcing rules, making people jump through hoops, and control. They exploit the rules to defend against the snakes and advance their careers, as they create nothing and never change.
20% Scientists, analysts, and technicians. These people make things happen, as well as anything can happen in such a politicized environment. As often life-long government employees they have little sense of risk-reward or the cost-benefit of their actions, but they are very very smart and politically competent. Their hands are tied the rules, or they slip into corruption by working with the snakes too much.
First go-round was under Carter, signed into law Dec 11 1980. AlGore brought it to its final form, a useless added bit of paper on every bit of government paper.
Part 2: JOB TYPES
- Information Technology: The government has TERRIBLE computer and software systems. They are old, the contracts go to the lowest bidders, and systems don't work with other systems. IF THE GOVERNMENT PRIORITIZED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THEY COULD EASILY GET RID OF ALL THE VETERANS AND DEI STAFF. Tasks that can be done automatically in private industry require a crew of 12 federal employees and lots of sweat. But, social support jobs are meant for social support, the Maryland and Virginia senators/congress people lobby for local pork barrel positions, and the establishment loves the public relations value of veteran/DEI giveaways.
- Collect money and distribute money: The IRS takes your money, the Treasury fabricates money/debt from thin air, and many others distribute benefits and entitlements. See Social Security, welfare, the Veteran's Administration (VA), medicare, agriculture (farm subsidies), HUD (home insurance and low-income housing support), etc. There are lots of accounts to monitor, lots of customer services roles to fill, and lots of reports to write. Many nominal conservatives depend heavily on this stuff.
- Buy things and give money away: The many, many, many contracting and grants programs follow a 1,000,000 rules to spend money. This involves reviewing competitive bids or research proposals (e.g., a contracting manager, technical reviewers, decision makers, support staff, etc.) and reviewing requests for gifts (e.g., a grants manager, technical reviewers, decision makers, support staff, etc.). To give away $1,000,000 it may require another $1,000,000 in overhead and oversight. But, the employees must follow the laws as written and funded by the elected officials.
- Military: This is a gigantic money black hole that cannot pass an audit despite being "mandated" to do so for decades. They are many "yes men" who had free will beaten out of them when they joined up, so bad ideas tend to continue. The combat leaders must ensure that the ability to fight will be maintained despite wartime losses (e.g., sunken ship; downed aircraft), so every management system doubles up. This bleeds over into non-combat roles and massive waste. There's more pork and waste in the military than all other federal agencies put together (especially if you count the many, many veterans at the VA). But, DoD gets away with it for providing security and in being less partisan than most agencies.
- Create rules and standards (regulatory): These range from units that most people like (e.g., NIST), to mixed quality (e.g., DOT, FAA) to openly political and wildly partisan (e.g., EPA, ATF). Elected officials muck about with these agencies when they see political potential, but they employ relatively few people. They spew rules and nonsense that affects all the operational groups (above), and can be the agency equivalent of a political snake. These are the ones that Musk and Ramaswamy have in mind and are really after.
Still, good luck firing 600,000 (useless, remote working, customer service providing) disabled veterans Elon and Vivek. Good luck.
The way Trump is setting this up is smart. It's a department outside of the Federal government, meaning it's not an agency. The department will give the recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget for implementation, which is an agency. Why the layer? Because as a non-agency, Musk and Ramaswamy are not subject to agency rules on conflicts of interest (Musk would need to resign from Space X and Tesla operations otherwise, which would never happen).
This is just Trump's strategy for neutering a potential political competitor. Give them an impossible task, pair them with someone they will not get on with, and leave them with responsibility for the failure to control expenditure and the disasters that occur from cutting regulations that protect consumers. Musk has no escape from this. It is a poisoned chalice.
LOL
Keep digging tiger....
What a buffoon you are.
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